Selected Contemporary Assessment Issues

As demands for accountability escalate, assessment continues to evolve as a central aspect of student affairs administration. Experience clearly indicates that without a robust portfolio of assessment activities, the services, programs, and activities of a student affairs division are at risk of being reassigned to other organizational units on campus--or, in a tight budgetary environment, being eliminated. This sourcebook reminds student affairs educators of the importance of developing an assessment program and explores topics that will add depth and richness to such a program. From specific metrics to broad strategies for developing collaborative activities involving academic and student affairs, it shows how to integrate valuable resources into the assessment process and how to use that process to enhance the student experience. The authors also take the largest view, offering advice on developing an institutional culture of assessment and planning future actions that will best serve students during their collegiate years. This is the 142 nd volume of this Jossey-Bass higher education quarterly series. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.